"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD..." Psalm 33:12

This verse makes it clear how a nation is blessed. Our nation can certainly testify to this blessing of God in her history. Washington D.C. is filled with testimonies of this kind of faith in God that adorn it's buildings and monuments.

At the Washington Monument, engraved on the aluminum capstone is the Latin phrase Laus Deo, which means "Praise be to God". Lining the walls of the stairwell are carved tribute blocks that declare such biblical phrases as "Holiness to the Lord", "Search the Scriptures", "The memory of the just is blessed", and "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

At the U.S. Capitol this inscription adorns the House Chamber; "In God We Trust". At the entrance of the Senate chamber are the words Annuit Coeptis, which is Latin for "He has favored our undertakings". The words "In God we Trust" are also written over the southern entrance. In the Rotunda is the painting of "The Baptism of Pocahontas". Also "The Embarkation of the Pilgrims" that shows the Pilgrims praying on shipboard led by William Brewster. One can clearly see an open Bible with the words "the New Testament according to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."

The Supreme Court has a number of places where there are images of Moses with the 10 Commandments. Moses is included among the great lawgivers in Herman MacNeil's marble sculpture group on the east front. As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge doors have the 1o Commandments engraved on each lower portion or each door. A display of the 10 Commandments is also engraved over the chair of the Chief Justice.

The Jefferson Memorial has many references to God. A quote that runs around the interior dome says, "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every from of tyranny over the minds of man." One of the panels reads, "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."

The Lincoln Memorial has excerpts from some of Lincoln's speeches inscribed upon its walls. On the left side is the Gettysburg Address. He said, "We here highly resolved that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom." On the right side is Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, which mentions God fourteen times and quotes the Bible twice.

I think it's evident that this faith was inscribed upon these men's hearts as well as the monuments which honor them. And because of their faith in God, God blessed this nation. But history is history. What about the future?

Pastor Tim